Profile Court summons FGR, SG and Sedena to solve case of forced disappearance

Edward Murillo

Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, August 8, 2022, p. 8

The minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), Margarita Ríos Farjat, proposed summoning the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR), the secretariats of the Interior (SG) and National Defense (Sedena), as well as the National Search Commission (CNB), so that in 30 days they take concrete actions to solve the case of the forced disappearance of Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez, disappeared since 2007 in Oaxaca, at the hands of the military and state police.

In the draft resolution of amparo under review 51/2020, scheduled to be voted on this week in the first chamber of the highest court, Minister Ríos proposes to ratify the original sentence, which ordered the creation of a special commission to search for these disappeared, but also It adds setting specific deadlines and obligations for the defendant authorities to comply with this ruling.

Both the FGR and the Sedena appealed the original sentence, for which it was necessary for the victims’ lawyers to take the case to the SCJN, claiming forced disappearance, as well as the obstruction of carrying out the necessary steps to investigate the aforementioned crime.

This is the case in which Reyes and Cruz, both members of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), were arrested in the capital of Oaxaca on May 24, 2007 by elements of the Sedena, the state’s General Directorate of Public Security, as well as as well as the Ministerial and Municipal Police. Both were taken to Military Camp number 1, in Mexico City, where they were never heard from again.

Upon arriving at the SCJN, Minister Ríos presented a first draft sentence where she only proposed to ratify the amparo and return the matter to a collegiate court.

This proposal was criticized by the relatives of Reyes and Cruz, who demanded a resolution that would allow a thorough investigation of the case and full reparation for the damage caused.

Minister Ríos spoke with the lawyers and relatives of the victims and redid her project, adding specific obligations for the authorities involved in the disappearance and setting deadlines to comply with them.

This, taking into account the role of Sedena in the events and its institutional responsibility, as part of the State, taking into account that there are indications of the participation of military elements in the detention of both complainants, at which time their whereabouts are unknown.

The new project would oblige the FGR to publish on its website the progress made in the investigation of the case and the evidence from the preliminary investigation.

The defenders of the disappeared have indicated that the resolution of the SCJN will set a precedent on the way in which the Mexican State must address and resolve cases of forced disappearance.